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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (552203)	3/1/2010 4:42:06 PM
From: TimF	Respond to of 1575290

They pay more in taxes as a nominal dollar amount in total and per person, and as a real dollar amount in total and per person. They also pay a larger percentage of taxes paid. So they are, to a greater extent than in the past, covering the burden of federal government costs, while at the low end (which is approaching the middle now) an increasingly large percentage of people pay no federal taxes. .these days the rich elite feel they are the privileged class and should be worshipped That was never really true in the US to a very great extent, but to the extent it ever has been, its less now. The rich are much less likely to fight in wars. Guess what the middle class and the poor are also much less likely to do so. We have moved away from mass armies and towards a high level of equipment and training for a smaller army. "If he meant that seriously he was off his rocker." Again its an indication of how far we have fallen. To you, his attitude is unimaginable. Oh its very imaginable. I even see it occasionally. Its just crazy. Its horrible both morally and practically. Even the people in his day apparently realized that, since despite it being pushed by one of the most powerful presidents in our history it never became law. You are a proponent for greed......that's why you think higher rates are unjust. Higher rates are greed. They represent the desire to take other people's income by force. Putting aside the justice, since we've been over it so many times before, and since its a philosophical issues, which new facts can't really change - 100% tax rates, or near 100% tax rates are practical disasters, if they affect more than a very small fraction of people, and negative if they affect anyone. They don't even increase federal revenue (compared to other high but not quite so confiscatory rates). Whether its 35% or 80% that maximizes revenue (the maximizing point is hard to tell for any particular time, and also changes over time, so it can be endless debated) 90% is clearly past it. At 100% rate there is no incentive to work or risk to earn the dollars that face such a rate, except to the extent that the taxes can be avoided or evaded. If you want to grab more from the super rich for the government (and I don't) then at least do it in a sensible way. Don't go to ridiculously high rates, instead try to close off loopholes and ways to avoid tax. Tax 90 to 100% of their income a rate X, rather than taxing 10 to 50% of their income at 2 or 3X.